The collapse of America is scheduled to happen today, April 15th. The idiocracy says the sky is falling, tax-wise. There are “TEA” parties protesting taxes, socialism, redistribution of wealth, government bailouts and all things Obama. Fiscally conservative Republicans are all over the stimulus and are voicing opposition to increased taxes and national debt.

While a fiscally conservative Republican is easy to find today, three or four years ago you could more easily find an atheist in a foxhole and they dared not question the last President for fear of leaving a stain on the carpet.

Is this the end then? Has the world’s leading socialist (George W. Bush) finally struck a stake through the heart of capitalism? If only Milton Friedman’s body had been wrapped in copper wire and some magnets thrown in his coffin, we’d be energy-independent now because of the speed at which he’s no doubt spinning. How richly ironic it is that the picture sure to be hung in reverence on every leftist’s wall will be that of George W. Bush.

Are we doomed to a sooty socialist future of concrete apartment blocks, dial-up Internet, basic cable, and those low-wattage fluorescent bulbs that never seem to give enough light?

Let’s take a non-scientific poll consisting of three questions. When you’re finished, ask yourself why everybody got #3 so wrong. Then ask yourself how you know if you’ve been brainwashed on tax policy.

Question #1: What is the highest current federal income tax rate? Answer: 35 percent.

#2: What will the highest rate go to when the Bush tax cuts expire? Answer: 39.6 percent.

#3: What was the highest federal income tax rate during the 1950s? Answer: ...

(Now remember; in the 1950s we were the world’s leading importer of raw materials, leading exporter of manufactured goods and the world’s leading creditor. We fought the Korean War, the Cold War, rebuilt Europe and Japan, laid the ground work for the space race that we won, and had a large and growing middle class that gave the country cultural and political stability. Did I mention that we had plenty of millionaires? Our national debt, as a percent of GDP went down all through the 1950s under both Democrat Truman and Republican Eisenhower. In short, our economy boomed!)

OK, now the answer: 91 percent.

Yes, that’s right – ninety-one percent. If you were earning anywhere from $200,000 to $400,000 or more in 1955, depending on your filing status ($1.5 to $3.1 million in 2008 dollars), your federal income tax rate was 91 percent!

Poppycock, you say. How can that be? That goes against everything we “know” about taxes and the economy.

High taxes will kill the economy, they say. High taxes will kill jobs, they say. High taxes will stop investment, they say. All the cheerleaders (I mean, “experts”) say it – CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and every Republican with breath in his lungs.

In big type and in a million small ways they tell us that the progressive income tax system is inherently unfair and raising taxes on the wealthiest is bad for all of us. Bad for the economy, bad for our jobs, our 401k’s — bad, bad, bad.

(The Bush tax cuts haven’t done my 401k any good lately – I’m just glad my Social Security wasn’t riding on the stock market, too, but I digress.)

The “experts” say a lot of things, don’t they? But what “they” say will happen ... didn’t happen.

The fact is that the economy didn’t collapse under high income tax rates. We weren’t thrust into depression. Droves of businesses didn’t close and move overseas. Boardroom talent didn’t flee the country to tax havens abroad.

Interestingly, CEO pay rates, while very generous, stayed mostly flat during the 1950s and 1960s but began a steep climb in the 80s and 90s, a climb that coincided with reductions in the highest tax rates.

Ever wonder why Ronald Reagan is heralded by Republicans as the savior? Was it because he was anti-Communist? Because he was a good Christian? Or could it be all that money?

Yes, if I was a CEO, I’d sing his praises, too. After all, he gave us CEO types a pay raise of 35 to 40 percent (tax reduction from 70 percent in 1980 to around 30-35 percent when he left office).

Reaganomics and the undermining (“government is the problem” – R.R.) of government regulation and oversight opened the door for me and my CEO buddies to loot our corporations, fleece our shareholders, foul the environment, purchase members of Congress, the Senate, numerous state legislators, loot savings bank depositors, cheat energy consumers and for the grand finale, infect the entire world’s financial system.

After all, us CEOs are like puppies – we’ll eat all the food as fast as we can get it – the only difference is that we’re not cute.

As if that wasn’t enough, ol’ Ronnie gave us CEOs the green light to attack our workers (re: the ATC strike where merely firing the striking controllers wasn’t good enough; he banned them for life from ever working as a controller again). What’s not to love about a guy like him? And did I say he was an anti-Communist?

Yes, it was all patriotism, the triumph of capitalism, free markets and defeating the godless commies. And it all started with Reagan.

Clinton? Merely a speed bump. We are now witness to the trickle-down theory finally collapsing under the reign of Bush-Cheney. And guess who’ll get stuck holding the bag?

But what about the average Joe, you say? He got a tax break too under Reagan. True enough; someone earning $50,000 in the 1980s (in 2008 dollars) has gotten a tax break compared to his colleague in the 1950s.

But darn it anyhow, just not as much. Average Joe’s taxes went from about 29 percent in the 50s to about 25 percent at the end of Reagan’s term, w whopping 4 percent reduction.

That’s great, but it sure isn’t 40 percent. Besides that, Joe’s wages have been kept low because if he agitates for higher wages we’d just outsource his job, and Joe knows that (we’ll probably do it anyway).

So, if the cost of everything else has gone up over time, why is it easier for politicians to talk about changing Social Security – the so called third rail of politics – but impossible to tell us we have to, or should, pay higher taxes (with the exception of Dar Thompson, who was publicly flogged in these pages for that sin, and Joe Biden, who was ridiculed for suggesting that we should be proud to pay our taxes)?

As a result of our aversion to both voting and taxes and in exchange for keeping “official” state taxes down, various and sundry “fees” and “alternative” tax schemes have blossomed. At least 40 states now have voluntary taxes called lotteries.

Things are so dire that we have politicians advocating legalization and taxation of pot. You can almost hear the great gnashing of teeth by fiscal and social conservatives, as they try to decide between a tax increase for everybody (including them) or legalization and taxation of the devil weed.

They have already caved on legalized gambling. Can legalized prostitution be far off? Will we choose to raise taxes or will we pass the buck as new “sin” taxes and as more debt to our progeny?

Whichever route we end up taking, can we please stop pretending that everything we get in the form of government services doesn’t cost more over time? Can we stop acting like paying taxes is stupid or immoral? Can we please stop saying everything government does sucks – it doesn’t.

Government isn’t the problem. Plenty of what we get in the form of “government services” is the absolute best in the world. Our socialized military and air traffic control service, for instance. On the local level, our socialized firefighters, EMS, police and schools are first rate.

And can we please stop calling for ever smaller and smaller government? How about calling for excellent government – whatever size it takes? How about actually participating in government?

I’m not advocating raising taxes to 91 percent. But do I think the progressive tax structure is fundamentally fair? Absolutely. Do I think the estate tax is fundamentally fair? Absolutely.

Is the tax code labyrinthine? Oh, yeah – an overhaul is overdue. Are there efficiencies to be gained in government? You betcha!

But there is more going on than just generating government revenue or “redistributing” wealth, something a flat tax or a “fair” tax won’t solve.

I think that the accumulation of extreme wealth from generation to generation at present rates and certainly at the rates of those opposed to such taxes is not in the long-term interest of our country. We certainly don’t want a House of Lords here.

The economic history of the 1950s is not in dispute. We didn’t collapse, we thrived. Is it possible that high income tax rates on the highest income earners made the titans of industry look at a timeline farther into the future? Out beyond the next quarter or next year?

Did the CEOs have to plan for the longer term in order to collect their millions? Did those high tax rates have a macro economic effect that benefited the entire country beyond a federal revenue stream? Was that a good thing for all of us?

Are the current crop of CEOs just hired guns running up a stock price in order to cash out and leave? What currently qualifies as “long-range planning” in corporate America anyway? Has the CEO corps of the U.S. been dumbed down by favorable laws, friendly judges and fellow board members that end up directing some facet of government oversight of their very own industries?

Has that served capitalism or the country well? Does it serve your family well? Is a successful CEO now defined as a person who is the only employee of a corporation that has become either totally automated or totally outsourced? Is that the end-game of the Friedman School of Economics?

I’m sure this space will be filled with learned and energetic rebuttals next week encompassing all the horrible things our tax system does and the intellectual and moral failings of my thought process. There’ll be new and more derogatory terms for “liberal” and “socialist.” I’m sure to be branded a commie.

Big deal. Just don’t call me a conservative or Republican.

But this does bring to mind that old saying, “You get what you pay for.” It has just taken 30-odd years for that bill to come due.

We only need look in the mirror for those responsible. While all of us expect the best stuff from our government – military, emergency services, schools, a functioning SEC, FEMA, air traffic control, interstate highways, food safety, drug safety, etc., judging from election turnouts, most of us don’t care to participate in managing that money.

Tax protestation, evasion, name-calling and complaining makes it look like, while you want that stuff, you just don’t want to pay for it. You want someone else to pay for it.

Well, maybe the oil princes and the Chinese will keep paying. For me, I’m proud to pay my taxes.

Thomas Finnegan

Fayetteville, Ga.

thomasfinnegan (at) earthlink.net